1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the graphical user interface (GUI) portion of a computer system and, in particular, to a method of signaling and acknowledging the occurrence of events via a GUI.
2. Description of Related Art
FIG. 1A illustrates the GUI portion of a typical computer system. Computer 100 includes a monitor 110, a keyboard 120 and a mouse 130. One or more windows 140 may be displayed on screen 150 of monitor 110 to allow the user to perform different tasks concurrently. A cursor icon 160, generally, but not necessarily, resembling an arrow is also displayed on screen 150 and is controlled by mouse 130. Generally, when more than one window 140 is displayed on screen 150, the input from keyboard 120 is directed to the foreground window.
As modern computer systems encompass a variety of components, both at the hardware and at the software level, GUIs allow users to control the components of the computer system via an abstract representation of the computer system displayed by the GUI. For example, such a graphical representation of a computer system may be used to monitor events occurring on the various components of the computer system. FIG. 1B illustrates a window 170 displayed on screen 150 illustrating a computer system comprising a computer and two printers attached to the computer. A printer malfunction is indicated by displaying a printer unavailable icon 180 superimposed over dot matrix printer icon 190.
However, in modern computer system, and in particular in systems that have multiple servers and complex network configurations, the number of components that need to be graphically represented becomes quickly unmanageable. There is thus a need for an easy to implement method of signaling events occurring on components of large computer system via a GUI.